Category Archives: Cuboid

So, as if it wasn’t obvious, today is about biggering. After yesterday’s Square-1, so today is the super square-1.

This was a gift from my wish list a long while ago. I don’t think I even knew what it was!! Just saw it and liked the look of it – no cuboid experience, no square-1 experience. Good luck, me…..

I really struggled and ended us watching videos to solve it. I had NO IDEA!

Still don’t……

BUT. I did write out my own guide for it. And lost that. 😦

Hey ho. So this sits mostly untouched on the shelf with all of the others.

It’s a nice puzzle. Really well made. The stickers have this strange, gritty kind of feel to them. Unlike any others I have. But that’s how they have always been.

I think there were a lot of complaints about this puzzle, but I have none. It turns very well and only locks up if it isn’t lined up properly!! Which seems pretty obvious!

I like it.

I would have got a Square-1 first, and maybe a cuboid or two, but other than that, I like it. Give it a bash – this one actually came from Amazon, but they aren’t in stock any more. A quick search shows that Cubezz have them for well under ten pounds. GET STUCK IN!!

This is another older puzzle from the collection that doesn’t get solved very often. To be honest, it’s the same as most of them!! One good thing to come from this blog is playing with older puzzles that don’t get used very often!!

As you can see, this on is a shape shifter:

It should be noted that this puzzle is not capped internally, so doesn’t feel very strong or solid – a bit flimsy feeling:

Much the same as others this week, you first reduce this back to the original, cuboid shape and then solve. And therein lies the rub…..

Parities. Or false equivocations.

I would like to say I understand parities a lot more these days. I spent quite a while trying to learn parity algorithms, but they are generally fairly long.

So, after a lot of reading on the Twisty Puzzles forums and lots of YouTube viewing, I think I understand why they happen and ways to solve without long algorithms – Cha Reeves from the twisty puzzle blog/YouTube is a good one for this. He generally only uses a few algorithms to solve pretty much most puzzle you could think of. And normally gets out of parity using a single turn and then resolving (it makes sense – watch some of his videos. See the links page).

So, this is a big culprit for that, but it can be dealt with fairly easily.

Anyway, it’s not a great puzzle – mostly because of the flimsy feel to it and being a bit catchy, but it can be found for not much more than £10 – I think Marty at the puzzle store has it for just over ten pounds plus postage.

Not massively expensive, nt great but a fairly good additions for an introduction to cuboids.

Well, what did you expect? Life would be boring if every cube I told you about was super great and worth buying, wouldn’t it???

I think it’s only fair to tell you good and bad points – this blog may be useful for a beginner building a collection, so subjectivity should be used.

So, as with the last couple of puzzles, this is another cuboid. Where the others have had a common number of sides (3×3x5, 3×3x9, 3×3x6) this one is different. All three are different. 2 by 3 by 4. This allows some strange things to happen….

It changes shape.

If you’re fairly new to puzzling, maybe with a bit of experience with standard nxnxn puzzles (2×2, 3×3 etc.), this will be a whole new world for you!!

As well as new algorithms and ways of solving (180 degree turns), you’ve now got a new problem. Restructuring!

As with higher order puzzles (particularly as a beginner), you will need to reduce this back to shape before you can start solving it! That’s where your problems begin, my friend….

As with higher order puzzles, reduction comes at a cost. Sometimes parity. Sometimes, false equivocation (see Superantoniovivaldi on the links page).

Where you are putting this back to shape, you may notice some of the pieces look exactly the same. That’s where the similarities end. Looks. Each piece still has its own place. Put two in the wrong places and you’ll know about it. At the end.

I won’t go massively into parity here, because (a) it’s not that kind of blog and (b) a million people can explain it a million times better than I can (see Twisty Puzzles forum in the links page).

Suffice to say, these shape-shifters will open up a whole new world and this 2x3x4 is just the beginning….

For a starter, his is a bargain around ten pounds. You can get it from most of the usual suspects. Just beware: this puzzle didn’t arrive fully functional. Some moves would bandage it and stop it moving further. Mine came with the extra pieces to fix this (that was a puzzle in itself). Maybe check with your retailer that these come with the puzzle. They should do, but old stock may not.

Well, we’ve move out of the realm of “cubic cuboids” and into the cuboid proper territory with this tower block style puzzle.

Ps:

I think this was also a gift (although I can’t remember who from – sorry!).

It was probably one of my first cuboids. With which, came some new learning – the world of 180 degree turns was a new on for me! I didn’t even have a domino cube (still don’t, in fat!!) to learn with.

Fortunately, this one is a nice easy entry in. No shape-shifting, just plain simple solving. And unlike yesterday’s cubic puzzle – the layers are nice and chunky. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before my big hands, so the tiny layers of yesterday’s 3x3x9 make it a lot harder than it should be!!

In honesty, I don’t solve this one very often. I guess because it seems easy? Doesn’t stop me solving a 3×3 most days….

Well, the countdown is on – 20 more working days left for me, so that means 20 more definite daily blogs.

Anyway, this week I thought I would show some cuboids. Nothing majorly extravagant, all mass-produced, but still fun.

Today’s is a cubic 3x3x5. You can see the middle layer is full-sized. I guess the benefit there is that you get a dual solve – the cuboid parts and then the standard 3×3. Well, I suppose you reshape it as a 3c3 to be able to move around the small layers, solve those and then solve the 3×3.

It’s a nice puzzle, turns well with nice, thick stickers.

Well under ten pounds from Z Cube. Not a bad transition from cubes to cuboids.